Learning, Listening & All My Relations with Blake Jackman

By Laura Mushumanski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

(ANNews) – All my relations. This concept is a way of walking in the world, being good to all who reside on Mother Earth and seeing everyone as kin. Before coming to this understanding, it takes a lot of grit: sweat, blood and tears… healing, and how healing is like a winding river, sometimes along the way it is calm and where the body finally feels at peace, then only to come across rapidly moving waters making it feel impossible to keep going. And yet – when we keep moving forward, continuously opening our hearts and minds to different possibilities… “you are never stuck.” Instead and over time, new ways of knowing become light and love, understanding and compassion, grace and acceptance. This is what it is like to be humbled, to feel humbled, and in turn to walk in a good way as a good relative to all our relations that reside upon Mother Earth.

Blake Jackman, Director of Housing with Native Counselling Services of Alberta in Edmonton describes his introduction to the concept of ‘all my relations.’ He said, “My late father [who adopted me in a traditional way and spiritual family] shared with me, ‘you can see all colors of skin, all shades of skin … but being nehiyawewak is about how you walk through this life.’ He was really against racism from any perspective, he would always say to me it is about how you walk, not the color [of your skin].”

As an adult, Jackman, our non-Indigenous brother, an ally to all who know him, was adopted by Indigenous mentors within our communities. But before Jackman’s life significantly changed, he too was immersed within a common lifestyle of using the wrong kind of medicines to heal from what was happening inside his body and mind.

“I knew that when I got sober,” shared Jackman. “I was a sober miserable person; I wasn’t happy and still didn’t want to be alive. I was still angry at everything that happened to me in my past. I knew I needed to do something completely different from how I ever lived before… I went for it. Looking back, I cannot believe how much has changed in my life, thanks to that decision, but it was difficult.”

After wanting to change his ways of being, Jackman started to learn how to meditate and then got into reiki that led him to teaching reiki in Saddle Lake, Alberta. This was the tipping point in Blake’s life when he realized, “I learned a lot more than I was teaching [in the Eagle Healing Lodge], mostly from the kohkoms who came to take part in the course. They really took a shining to me, which I am grateful for, [they] spent a lot of time teaching me things. About a month later I was invited to my first sweat lodge. I’ve never done reiki again… once I went to my first sweat lodge, I felt like I found spirituality, I felt grounded, I felt whole. I felt like I found something that I was looking for my whole life. I just never looked back on that.”

As Jackman continued to learn and listen to understand, the more he came to know and realize that he really didn’t know anything – the understanding of humility, and listening beyond what the ears can hear, listening with every part of his being and heart.

“Being a part of [community] really helped me check my privilege,” continued Blake. “Yes, I struggled, I had a difficult life growing up but I had a lot of advantages too. I never struggled like the community I am in now – [about] basic needs, food security, water security. I never had a problem, even as an addict getting a job, nobody looked at me differently, no one second guessed my qualifications… I was being immersed in a world where the challenges were much greater and still there was this positivity within community that things could get better, it just had to be grounded in prayer, in community, and in working together. One thing that really touched me early on was the need to constantly repair…that understanding, empathy, that somebody does make mistakes, somebody does get angry, somebody does fall off, and that [there is a] need to continue to step up and be there for that person – to repair and reconcile consistently.”

Building relationships in a good way – protocol, and what that means, comes from utilizing teachings within ceremony by walking with ceremony in our everyday lives. The embodiment of knowledge being shared in a good way eventually leads to wisdom when we choose to continue to walk with these teachings as a way of life, neural pathways begin to reorganize. The innerworkings of healing is neurophysiology and coming to know things differently, over time, with grace, compassion, love, and understanding of all my relations. Only when we surrender to be teachable by listening and learning beyond what we thought we know, and why Indigenous ceremonies are healing.

“Anytime I heard about a ceremony in Alberta, I would just get in my truck and drive whether I knew it was happening or not,” said Jackman. “I would just drive to that reserve solo [and ask] if I can take part… I was always welcomed – sometimes with a weird look, but I would keep trying and trying. That journey led me to being taken in as a brother, then being introduced to [others] who took me under their wing.”

Jackman, previously a general contractor, found an opportunity to work with people in addictions and mental health. “Having survived that myself, I wanted to see what that was like…it was life altering.” While working with our Indigenous brothers and sisters at a non-Indigenous led community organization, he noticed that “90% of our clients were Indigenous. I noticed our programming wasn’t gearing towards recovery and accountability… we weren’t doing things from an Indigenous perspective…I just saw a lot of gaps in how we were serving our Indigenous community…There was a disconnect between what we were offering and what the people living there deserved.” Blake’s journey led to working at ground level, learning and listening to understand Indigenous methodologies and ways of knowing that supported community members challenged with housing insecurity, addictions and mental health.

The importance of Indigenous programs being led by Indigenous people—how to properly engage with people suffering from mental health and addictions in a good way… having to be grounded in cultural ceremony, this understanding came to Jackman when his curiosity grew into wanting to learn more about Indigenous cultural perspectives and supports. “I wanted to work for Indigenous agencies, I wanted to learn how Indigenous agencies delivered mental health and addiction services, and in housing. I wanted to understand it from a base level and be guided by management and leadership that was Indigenous and understand their perspective on how best to serve their people.”

“Housing is a basic human right, said Jackman. This understanding is embedded in taking care of each other as kin relatives. About his current role within community he shared, “We are making a difference [at Native Counselling Services of Alberta], witnessing self-determination in each individual to make choices that better their lives because the supports were there. That’s all they needed was that step up, that hand, that person to say, ‘hey, we can do this, but we are going to do this together, you are going to lead this way and I am here to navigate systems for you.”

“There is always another door you can open, you are never stuck,” concludes Jackman and there is someone always willing to walk beside you along your journey – all my relations.